New Cross-Border Effort to Oppose Tar Sands Oil Tankers That Threaten West Coast
Oil Giants Kinder Morgan & Enbridge Propose New Pipelines that Rival Controversial Keystone XL in Transport Quantity; Organizations Pushing Back With New Tool to Track the Risk and Take Action
On Tuesday, October 1, at 10:00am PST, environmental advocates, First Nations community members, and business operators from coastal communities on the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada will hold a tele-press conference to discuss a new effort to oppose new tar sands oil proposals that are threatening coastal communities. The West Coast faces an exponential growth in environmental and health risks associated with new pipeline, rail, and oil tanker proposals that will bring toxic tar sands oil to our coast. In British Columbia, concerns around these new proposals have become key political and social issues; in the Northwest U.S., these issues are just coming to the fore. ForestEthics and ForestEthics Advocacy will be unveiling a new tool that will allow citizens to monitor some of these new threats.
WHO: Campaigners with ForestEthics and ForestEthics Advocacy will be joined by: Simon Fawkes, an experienced mariner and operator of a whale watching business in Vancouver, B.C.; Jeremiah “Jay” Julius, a member of the Lummi Nation’s tribal council, the Lummi Indian Business Council, and a commercial fisherman for crab and salmon; Carleen Thomas, previously an elected council member for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation for 18 years, and currently staff member of the Nation’s Sacred Trust Initiative, which is their campaign to stop the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline.
WHERE: Tele-Press Conference Call-in Number: 866-952-7523 | Passcode: FORESTETHICS
WHEN: Tuesday, October 1st at 10 a.m. PST
Tar Sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth. Across the U.S. and Canada we have seen communities rise up to oppose the risks associated with new pipelines like Keystone XL and Enbridge, and face the devastating cleanups after tar sands disasters in places like Mayflower, AR, and Kalamazoo, MI.
Oil giant Kinder Morgan is proposing a new pipeline to Burrard Inlet in Burnaby near Vancouver, B.C., that rivals the controversial Keystone XL in quantity of tar sands oil. If this pipeline is approved, it will lead to more than 300 additional oil tankers traveling up and down the treacherous and fragile waters of Burrard Inlet, Georgia Strait, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, then down the coast all the way to California. Enbridge’s controversial Northern Gateway pipeline proposal would bring 220 new tankers along our shore. Currently, approximately 80 oil tankers travel along our western shore.
Already, opposition in B.C. is so powerful that new pipelines are becoming a top-of-mind issue for voters and citizens. First Nations and allies have built an unbroken wall of opposition that does not allow any “safe route” for oil companies to build new pipelines that would connect the landlocked tar sands oil of Alberta to the coast.
In the United States’ Pacific Northwest, these issues are about to become big news: in Washington state, all five refineries on Puget Sound are proposing new oil by rail projects that would increase the coast’s exposure to tar sands and other forms of dangerous crude oil. With citizens already demanding real risk accounting of new proposed coal trains and facilities, new oil by rail projects only add to growing concern about the future of the state. The future of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and beyond will be seriously impacted by decisions made regarding new oil and coal infrastructure.
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For more information contact:
Ben West, Tar Sands Campaign Director, ForestEthics Advocacy – (604) 710-5340